Buying a second hand Pickup or Car

Hi Marc,

Hope you are well.

I have just read your message on the expat blog about the car purchase and here is our advice on the matter.

1. ) Buying a brand new car or Re-conditionned one ( second hand car from Overseas thru a dealer ) are the only cars that come with a guarantee.

Brand new cars will be entitled to the manufacturer's guarantee period which varies between 3 years to 7 years depending on the make OR 100,000 kms, whichever comes first..

Reconditionned cars will only carry usually a 6 months guarantee.

Both of these options are usually the safest ones but tend to be very expensive here.

One great advantage of buying from them is that you will get your  car, keys in hand at the showroom and will, in most cases, have to just look for and advise for an insurance policy to cover the car as an additional cost to the purchase value of the car.

2.) Buying a second-hand car is less costly but is also more risky as it also a matter of luck to find a seller selling a genuine good car to you. Unfortunately, locals here do not maintain  proper maintenance records of the car and therefore renders it difficult to know what is the mechanic history of the vehicle.

Also, buying a second-hand car involves a longer procedure for the buyer.

a.) When buying the car, the car will have to be re-registered on your name and this carries a registration tax that needs to be paid back to the govt. The tax amount is subject to the year of the car and the HP of the engine. This is done at the Registrar general of Mauritius, based in port-louiss

b. ) A new insurance policy will have to be issued by you on the car

c.) The documents ( registration book ) of the car will have to be transferred to your name and this can be done only at one of the Nationa Transport Authority Offices of the island.

d.) IF EVER, the car is turning into the 7th year of existence or more, it will have to be subject to a fitness text at an Examination centre of the island. Depending on the age of the vehicle, it can be subject to a yearly examination if need be.

However, the second-hand market for cars is suffering from the competition of new cars & reconditionned ones and you can get quite good cars and recent one ( 3-5 yrs old ) for a very fair value depending on what you are looking for as a vehicle.

As for the payment mode, please note that any cash transaction officially, as per mauritian laws, cannot exceed Rs 500,000. Although you may want to pay cash for the car, if the value exceeds this amount, you will have to issue a bank cheque usually.

You may also consider leasing facilities here as well but it may depend on your OP and other parameters linked to it.

If ever you need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me and i will gladly advise you on what you need to the best of my knowledge.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Gael